Consumers stocked up on cannabis products during this past holiday season, as post-holiday sales data from Headset, LeafLink, Flowhub and others show increased sales in the weeks leading up to Christmas and New Year’s Day.
From Headset
Headset data demonstrates increased sales in the U.S. and Canadian cannabis markets in the week leading up to Christmas (Dec. 18 through Dec. 24) when compared to previous weeks’ sales. The U.S. saw an increase of 17% in sales, while sales in Canada rose more than 26%. In both markets, topicals saw the biggest increase in sales during the week before Christmas, with beverages taking second place and edibles ranking third.
Headset data from California, Colorado, Michigan, Nevada, Oregon and Washington in the U.S. and from Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Saskatchewan in Canada illustrates increased sales on New Year’s Eve when compared to the previous four Fridays. In the U.S., sales jumped 6%, compared to an 8.9% increase in Canada. Michigan had the largest rise in sales on New Year’s Eve with a 13.7% increase, while Saskatchewan had the largest increase in Canada with sales up 12% compared to the previous four Fridays.
There was a slight increase in dispensary discounts on New Year’s Eve in both the U.S. and Canadian cannabis markets, Headset reported, with the average discount in the U.S. clocking in at 21.1%, up by about 13% when compared to the previous four Fridays, which saw an average discount of 18.6%. The average discount in Canada on New Year’s Eve was 4%, up by about 10% over the previous four Fridays’ average of 3.6%.
In the U.S., beverages, flower and concentrates sold the most on New Year’s Eve, according to Headset’s data, while tinctures/sublinguals, concentrates and beverages saw the largest increase in sales in Canada.
From LeafLink
Post-holiday data from LeafLink shows a 6.8% increase in sales through the platform in December when compared to the average growth rate over the prior three months.
Flower was the most popular product category in December, according to LeafLink, and made up 32% of sales through the platform. Packaged flower sold the most, making up 15% of total flower sales, while bulk flower was the second most popular subcategory, making up 14.7% of total flower sales.
Cartridges were the second most popular product category with 24% market share in December, LeafLink reported.
Both flower and cartridges performed relatively consistent with the previous month, according to LeafLink’s data, which shows that consumers did not significantly alter their purchasing habits during the holiday season.
From Flowhub
Flowhub data shows that Christmas Eve was a big sales day, marking the second most busy Friday of 2021 in terms of number of transactions. Christmas Eve sales in 2021 were down 10% from 2020 in terms of pre-tax sales, however.
In contrast, sales slowed on Christmas Day as they were 73% lower than a typical Saturday, according to Flowhub. The average order was $17 lower than the average order value, and sales on Christmas Day 2021 were 23% lower than those on Christmas Day 2020, which fell on a Friday.
Flowhub also reported that New Year’s Eve sales were nearly identical to a typical Friday, although the average order value was $2 lower than average. Sales on New Year’s Eve 2021 were 18% lower than New Year’s Eve 2020.
On New Year’s Day, sales were about half of a typical Saturday, according to Flowhub’s data. The average order was $10 lower than average, and sales on New Year’s Day 2021 were down 31% when compared to last year.
Many dispensaries had discounts for the holidays, Flowhub reported, although the discounts themselves tended to be small, averaging roughly $5. On a typical day, 18% of transactions included a discount, according to Flowhub, but on Christmas Eve, 39% had a discount. Forty percent of transactions on Christmas Day included a discount, as did 39% on New Year’s Eve and 38% on New Year’s Day.
Additional Holiday Data
At Jushi, sales the week before Christmas (Dec. 18 through Dec. 24) were higher than the previous four weeks, and the week of Dec. 11 through Dec. 17 was the second biggest week of sales leading up to Christmas. The week of Nov. 20 through Nov. 26 was the third biggest week of sales for Jushi during the holiday season due to Green Wednesday, the day before Thanksgiving, which was Jushi’s biggest sales day of the year.
Patients and adult-use consumers tend to gravitate to online pre-orders at Jushi, and the company experienced an increase in online reservations this year compared to the same time period in 2020.
Flower remained Jushi’s most popular product category during the holiday season, although the company reported an uptick in disposable vape and edible sales in 2021.
According to data from Lantern, consumers started stocking up for the holidays during the second weekend in December, which saw a 56% increase in daily order volume. That trend continued through the month, with a 26% rise in order volume and a 7% increase in average order value the week before Christmas. This peaked Dec. 23 with a 51% increase in average order value.
Lantern also saw increased sales leading up to New Year’s Day, with a 110% increase in order volume in the three days before New Year’s Eve compared to the three days prior.
Data from Jane Technologies shows that online sales spiked 5.7% in December compared to the previous three months. Online sales of dispensary merchandise, such as branded t-shirts and hats, increased 65% in December compared to the previous three months, and online sales of edibles and topicals were up 10% and 9%, respectively.
Finally, data from springbig demonstrates an 11% increase in sales the week before Christmas through New Year’s Day when compared with the same period last year, which equates to $276 million in total sales.
